RFT 📰

U.S. Representative Ann Wagner (R-Ballwin) has apparently had a change of heart after bemoaning the price tag for compensating north county residents exposed to radioactive nuclear waste. Wagner has signed onto a letter urging Congress to adopt a bill to help those impacted by radioactive waste in St. Louis. St. Louis companies were a key part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s.

A 22-year-old was severely injured in a hit and run in St. Louis late last month. Now friends are raising money for her as she recovers from five reconstructive surgeries. Ellie Bentley, who is the former partner of City SC player Indiana Vassilev, was struck by a car on February 25 at Manchester and Taylor streets in the Grove neighborhood. National news outlets the U.S. Sun and the New York Post report that Bentley was “caught up in a gun battle,” and dragged underneath the car for two blocks.

The rooftop terrace bar and lounge of Live! by Loews in downtown St. Louis, the Bullock (799 Clark Avenue), is opening Friday, April 5 — just in time for patio season — and opening day for the Cardinals.  Just across from Busch Stadium and Ballpark Village, the Bullock looks to add to the St. Louis sporting experience this spring and summer with the rollout of Executive Chef Steven Hall’s new menu.

Last December, a wealthy St. Louis couple was fined $215,200 for applying herbicide to a neighbor's trees near their vacation home in Maine. The herbicide was brought in from Missouri and not intended for shoreline use. Now traces of the herbicide have reportedly been found at a public beach in the area — and officials in Maine are calling for charges to be brought against Arthur Bond III and his wife Amelia, according to the Penobscot Bay Pilot.

Every year since 2002, with just one exception, the Artica festival has set up on a patch of land just north of Laclede's Landing and transformed the largely abandoned riverfront acreage into a wonderland for one weekend and one weekend only. The explosion of creativity has been described as St. Louis' Burning Man — made all the more amazing because it's long taken place on land owned by a local bank. As Lohr Barkley, president of Artica's board of directors, explains it, each year Artica has gone to the site's owner, and each year they've gotten permission.

The St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) began rolling out flashy, new promotional videos last month promoting the use of tax incentives. The videos — produced by public relations firm Candid Marketing, which SLDC has paid $30k per month since 2021 — were released against the backdrop of a report from national experts Good Job First that St. Louis area students are losing out on hundreds of millions of tax dollars due to local governments’ use of tax incentives.  SLDC’s videos boast that incentivized projects between 2017 and 2022 created new jobs and will lead to approximately $53 million of new property tax revenue over 10 years.

Last August, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen banned the open carry of firearms for anyone who isn’t also packing a concealed carry permit.  But even though police aren’t enforcing the law yet, they say they’re already seeing results. "On the surface it does appear there is a decrease in the opening carrying of firearms," says St. Louis Metropolitan Police Sergeant Charles Wall, echoing comments that Police Commissioner Robert Tracy has recently made in public forums.

An emotional scene played out in a St. Louis courtroom this morning as a 20-year-old pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and heard directly from the family of the teenager whose death he caused. Jonathan Cruz was 19 when he was gunned down in a car outside of a barber shop on Cherokee Street in the City of St. Louis in July 2021. In court this morning, his family stood on one side of the courtroom in front of Circuit Court Judge Katherine Fowler.

Clinics offering in vitro fertilization may have shut down across Alabama, but that’s no cause of alarm to Missouri Secretary of State and wannabe governor Jay Ashcroft. He says the suggestion that courts had anything to do with the closures is “ridiculously false talking point by the left.” Ashcroft made the bizarre comments recently on the talk show "Real Talk with Riggin.”

Five months after the extent of its financial problems burst into public view, Fontbonne University says it plans to close its doors for good. The university will close after the summer 2025 session and sell its 16-acre campus to nearby Washington University. The Catholic university, founded 101 years ago by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, will detail its plans at a press conference this afternoon featuring President Nancy Blattner.

It was Halloween in March in downtown St. Louis this past weekend, as thousands of people who work in haunted houses, escape rooms and other aspects of the "interactive concept" industry rolled into town for Transworld's Interactive Entertainment Show. The four-day affair, held from March 7-10, bills itself as the largest event of its type in the country.  Walking through the crowd of visitors on Washington Avenue last Thursday, we tried to find someone who looked like they'd be a fitting ambassador for the convention.

A 15-year-old is in custody and local and state leaders have responded with outrage after a video from Friday went viral showing one teen beat another’s head into pavement on a residential street near Hazelwood East High School as a group of young people watch.  As of yesterday, the victim was in critical condition at a local hospital, being treated for a severe head injury.

A St. Louis pediatrician who prosecutors allege traded sex for drugs with patients for years is set to appear in federal court this afternoon. There, a judge will determine whether 67-year-old Craig Spiegel should be immediately incarcerated or allowed to remain free as his case makes its way through the courts. The doctor stands accused of issuing more than 1,200 prescriptions since 2014 for drugs deemed medically unnecessary, in exchange for sex or cash.

The company that broke the internet with its THC-infused Red Hot Riplets has finally opened its first dispensary in St. Louis.  Show-Me Organics opened the doors to its Blue Sage Cannabis Deli (1015 McCausland Avenue) on February 23 in the prime spot between Hi-Pointe Drive-In and Hi-Pointe Theatre near Forest Park, ensuring that the whole area will be even Hi-er going forward. The “deli” in its name references the fact that the dispensary weighs out your selection onsite in front of you rather than dealing strictly with prepackaged flower, as with most Missouri dispensaries.

Feel-good musicals have the power to lift us up even when the characters and situations are far from our own experience. Such is the case with Sweet Potato Queens from New Line Theatre. The often laugh-out-loud funny musical about self-acceptance and finding your place in the world is a fluffily tenderhearted, uplifting show that thoroughly entertains.

A new bill amendment introduced at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen could bring back the days of walking into your favorite bar and finding it filled with the smell of smoke.  Board Bill 230, introduced by Ward 11 Alderwoman Laura Keys, aims to amend the City Smoke Free Air Act of 2009 to change the definition of “Tobacco Consumption Bar” to include bars where smoking is unregulated.

Just ahead of St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones signing a bill into law that would allow the city to eminent domain some of developer Paul McKee’s long-neglected properties, a St. Charles County Republican has filed legislation protecting McKee’s lenders. Mayor Tishaura Jones signed Board Bill 174 into law on March 5.

The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in a case marijuana regulators say could force them to issue “dozens” of new licenses to grow, sell and distribute cannabis products above the state’s self-imposed caps.  Mo Cann Do Inc. applied for a cultivation license to grow marijuana in 2019. The company was denied when the state said it didn’t include a certification of good standing from the Missouri Secretary of State’s office in its application.

It's difficult to think of two brands that say "St. Louis" more instantly than Imo's Pizza or Red Hot Riplets. One offers St. Louis-style pizza that outsiders love to hate almost as passionately as locals (sometimes grudgingly) admit to loving. The other offers only-in-St. Louis spicy barbecue chips so tasty, they've actually inspired shower curtains (yes, really) . And this coming 314 Day — that's Thursday, March 14, for all who celebrate — they're teaming up on a collaboration that could break the Internet, or at least the St. Louis corner of it.

Kung Fu Panda 4 reminds us that animated movie franchises should really end after the third one.  I’m still kinda mad that Pixar gave us one of the best movie trilogies of all time with the Toy Story saga, then served up a meh fourth installment in 2019.